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Ovivo Mobile closes down leaving customers stranded

For over a year now here on MoDaCo we've championed the cause of MVNO Ovivo Mobile. Up until today they sold SIM cards for a one-off payment of £20 but gave you a nice, but limited amount of calls and data for free every month. The network was a great solution for low use devices such as tablets and family members that need a mobile service but not necessarily the bells and whistles that come with more expensive packages.

Ovivo made their money from advertising, which they did by dropping in random adverts whilst you were browsing. However, many users soon realised that adverts would only display whilst browsing the web and didn't affect apps like Facebook, Twitter, Play Store etc which ultimately meant that Ovivo weren't getting as much money from advertising as expected.

Ovivo announced earlier this month that they were seeking to raise £3m by Easter and expand within the UK to take on more customers. It would appear that any negotiation has failed leaving the company unable to raise sufficient capital to keep the business going. As a result, Ovivo have ceased operations with immediate effect.

Dear OVIVO Customers,

We are very sad to announce that for reasons beyond our control, OVIVO Mobile is closing down on the evening of Wednesday 19th March 2014.

We'd like to thank each and every one of you for your support and friendship over the last two years.

A sad day, but in hindsight, one that was just around the corner. Worryingly, customers were not told in advance of the closure which leaves thousands without a working mobile service and some very unhappy customers.

MoDaCo forum user Todoleo commented:

"I'm quite annoyed. Just last week I purchased a SIM card from Ovivo for £20. The SIM card was delivered today and can't be activated."

Ovivo users can grab PAC codes from the Ovivo site to port their number to another network.

I've been with Ovivo mobile for a month, and in the time i was with them i found it brilliant. Free calls, texts and internet, what's not to like?

Yesterday i tried to access my mobile Internet, but it was unable to connect, giving me a message saying about a DNS error. After spending about 30 minutes trying to solve the issue, i went onto the Ovivo website to see if they were having any issues with their services, and that's when i saw that they'd closed down!

I've been with them for just over a year, so certainly got my money's worth. The thing that's annoyed me about this isn't that they've gone under (I never understood how they made any money), it's that they just turned off service with literally zero warning. They were still advertising SIMs yesterday afternoon on Twitter (now account deleted), so I can imagine there are a lot of people more pissed off than me. It's possible that my brother doesn't yet realise his phone isn't working. It's not as if they've actually contacted customers to let them know.

As long as I get my PAC pretty quickly, I'll be happy.

Is there anything anywhere near as good as Ovivio out there (I'm a very low usage case), or am I back to GiffGaff?

OVIVO fit my needs perfectly, as I'm only in the UK for the occasional week / weekend every couple of months and wouldn't use the phone a lot when I am.

Over the past year or so it's been so much less hassle to just switch sims at the airport and have my phone work without having to faff about topping up with credit which would have expired before I'd had time to use it (all the PAYG deals seem to expire after 30 days meaning I have to top up from fresh each time).

So OVIVO was perfect for my needs - alas I was not perfect for theirs.

As Mr.Clark asks, can anyone recommend anything else that might be any use?

Any standard PAYG deals where the credit doesn't expire?

There's Samba, but that's data only I think - I'm looking for something with at least a few voice minutes. Or does anyone know if you can receive Voice calls on Samba sims?

I would be a little cheesed off to take my PAC to Samba then find them go bump in a few months time...

OVIVO fit my needs perfectly, as I'm only in the UK for the occasional week / weekend every couple of months and wouldn't use the phone a lot when I am.

Over the past year or so it's been so much less hassle to just switch sims at the airport and have my phone work without having to faff about topping up with credit which would have expired before I'd had time to use it (all the PAYG deals seem to expire after 30 days meaning I have to top up from fresh each time).

So OVIVO was perfect for my needs - alas I was not perfect for theirs.

As Mr.Clark asks, can anyone recommend anything else that might be any use?

Any standard PAYG deals where the credit doesn't expire?

There's Samba, but that's data only I think - I'm looking for something with at least a few voice minutes. Or does anyone know if you can receive Voice calls on Samba sims?

I would be a little cheesed off to take my PAC to Samba then find them go bump in a few months time...

I was looking at the three.co.uk 3-2-1 PAYG too. Looks like a good deal compared to Giffgaff. Its a pity their coverage isn't as good for me as Giffgaff although I think I will still choose three.co.uk.

Just having a look at Vectone and Lebara. Both look interesting if you travel a bit, but there seem to be strings with either - Vectone get a lot of bad press for sketchy call quality and sharp practice (eg their top up page defaults to order recurring topups), while any credit with Lebara expires after 80 days. Three for me for now, then I'll sack that too probably when the new EU regulations prohibiting roaming charges kick in (next year?) Btw, don't feed the trolls

Sort of "off topic" but if you want to find out who might have best coverage for your area (in a nerdy geeky way) this site shows you mast locations and who operates them. Sadly my closet mast is run by "Network Rail" and I don't think they do PAYG sim card.